Muddy Run

[Russell2000]

So in my two year journey with duck keeping, I have always had to fight with mud. Every so often we will get two to three days of on and off rain with no sun that results in the duck run becoming extremely muddy, to the point that there is standing water. I have never really worried about it much as it seems to never have impacted the ducks in a negative way (ducks are waterfowl afterall). It often takes several days for everything to dry back up. We recently had another one of these periods of rain (below is three of my ducks playing in a dish of what was clean water about five minutes prior, just to show how muddy it gets).

I was curious if some of you wonderful people knew if this kind of mud could be dangerous to their health or if its a no big deal type of thing like I thought? And if its not good for them, what can I do to prevent it? I have considered laying a bed of straw along the entire run, would that help any? Thanks yall!

 

[casportpony]

Can you have some rock or sand brought in?

 

[Ratchnick]

Or wood chips, often you can get them free.

 

[casportpony]

I worry about wood chips because with that amount of water it's very likely they would get moldy. One also has to worry about what type of wood chips they are because many plants are toxic.

 

[Ratchnick]

Fair point

 

[416bigbore]

More pics of your duck run with dimensions would be very helpful. As posted above, I would stay away from using any organic material for fear of mold issues. Bare ground is always going to be a muddy mess with that amount of rain.

From the one pic you posted, it looks to me like your run must be located in a low area to where the water wants to collect and take longer to dry out. The fix for this would be to haul in more good dirt to raise the elevation of ground in the center and slop the ground to the edges of your run so that the rain runs off better and don't sit.

Depending on the size, maybe you could cover your run with a cheap tarp ? I fight the mud also and I like to cover my bare ground with indoor-outdoor carpet to help cut down on the mud. It cleans up nice with the garden hose and the ducks seem to like it also.

Most importantly, keep plenty of fresh clean water in contains for the ducks to rinse their beaks out after.

 

[RJKnott]

I have a similar problem. We will go periods of heavy rain and it gets super muddy.


If we have a period of no rain, my Pekins like to splash water out of their pool and make mud and sit in it.


I put hay down and it helps. Still let’s then forage got bugs and worms and keeps the mud at bay. Just have to clean it out and replace the hay regularly

 

[3bird]

+1 for covering your run if that is a possibility.